Yale Hook?

[turkeybacon]

I have pretty good extracurriculars (Model UN, sports, etc), a good SAT (2200+), an above-average GPA, top 15% of my class.

A fairly close member of my family (non-nuclear) was a Yale alum, fairly politically charged and was assassinated a few years ago in a third-world country due to his reforms. We carry the same surname and are an ethnic minority in the aforementioned country (which I do not live in anymore).

Apologies for how vague this is, but I do not want to give anyone hopes of finding out any personal information. Nonetheless, would this count as a hook? How would mentioning this in my Yale application affect my chances?

EDIT: Maybe it’s worth mentioning that members of my family still work as faculty at Yale, and a recommendation letter from a fairly high-charged member of government may, as well, be possible.

[gibby]

You’re really asking two questions:

1. What constitutes a legacy at Yale?
2. Will a letter from a highly placed member of government or Yale faculty help in the applications process?

1. Yale considers a legacy to be that your mother, father, grandmother or grandfather attended the university. Yale does ask about aunts and uncles on their supplement, but I believe this is because many well-to-do families (think Anderson Cooper and the Vanderbilt's) have given money to the university for family scholarships and the use of certain dorm rooms (the Vanderbilt Suite). This doesn't sound like your situation though, so no hook.

Also see: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-decline-of-legacy-admissions-at-yale/29338

Brenzel, to his credit, gave only a qualified defense of legacy preferences and provided some interesting data about the substantial decline in legacy admissions at Yale over time. In 1939, he said, legacies (defined as children of Yale college graduates) made up 31.4 percent the enrolled class at Yale. Today, they make up 8.7 percent. (Including the children of Yale alumni of professional and graduate schools adds a few percentage points to these totals.)

Brenzel noted that the percentage of low-income students receiving Pell Grants at Yale has increased to 14 percent, higher than the 10 percent overall figure for legacies.

Based upon the above, it would seem – all things being equal – that low-income students have a better shot of being admitted to Yale these days than a legacy.

1. What is the highly placed government official or Yale faculty member supposed to say? Can they comment about your scholastic abilities, how you are a leader of classroom conversations, how your writing surpasses the strictures of the assignment, how you have your hand raised with thoughtful and insightful comments? Or, will they basically just be saying "Turkeybacon comes from a wonderful family, he's an upstanding young man and you should accept him!" If it's the latter, that kind of recommendation usually gets an eye roll from Admissions as it just shows you know people. So, again no hook.

[Memmsmom]

You could use the history of this family friend and their impact on both your life as well as their impact on your career path/school choice as an essay to write. It is an interesting story and if you can back it up and be passionate about it, that will come across in what you write. This will more than likely be the only way you can have this “hook” do anything for you. Its all about what makes you interesting and how you are motivated and what you will do with this experience. On the other question about a family member working there. It depends on who they know. If they were to tell your regional AO to watch for your file and that you are an interesting kid who has a lot to offer, you might make it to the top of a pile but its still a pile to compete with.